Volume 5 - CH 12

v5c12 - What's the best way to do it

–Crawling on the spot for a while and being cared for by Alice, Cyclo somehow manages to get back on track.

“…… sorry, Alice.”

Cyclo first apologized to Alice.

It was an apology for the fact that they would not be able to go back to have a good family relationship as he had promised.

“Big brother ……”

Alice could not find the right words to say to Cyclo, so she shut her mouth.

Fortunately, it was Alice’s smile that triggered Cyclo’s trauma, at least not while she was still wearing her current gloomy expression.

“– You two. I’m sorry that you have that gloomy expression, but you should think about the future first.”

Karim spoke up to Cyclo and Alice, who was in a gloomy mood.

“As far as I know, I have never heard of any adventurers who have lost their trauma naturally.  In other words, if it is left untreated, it will stay that way forever.”

“But there is no cure, is there?”

Karim nodded at Mist’s words.

“Karim nodded. But that doesn’t mean there are no cases of improvement. There are cases of people overcoming it with a kind of stupid willpower, and I’ve heard that there are also cases of people gradually getting used to it and somehow overcoming it.”

“Then, if big  brother get used to it little by little, too ……!”

Alice says hopefully, but Karim denies it, shaking her head.

“It’s difficult to say that this is the case. Everyone can come up with at least that many solutions. The reason why they still can’t solve the problem is because it often fails. Sometimes it doesn’t work, and other times, the intention of getting used to it stimulates the trauma even more, and the symptoms become more severe. That’s why we can’t be careless with that.”

“No way ……”

Karim’s words make not only Alice, but also Cyclo and Mist despair.

In short, if Karim’s words are true — there is no possibility of improvement if left unchecked, and even though there are countermeasures, there is also the possibility that it will backfire. It is truly an all-or-nothing situation.

“In the worst-case scenario, he will start to get it just by looking at Alice-chan’s face. So we have to think about what to do.”

Karim assured me sternly.

“One of two things. Either we keep the relationship as it is now, where we can talk to each other. Or, we can take steps to improve the situation, even if that means making it worse.”

Both of these choices were risky for Cyclo and Alice.

However, Cyclo was quick to make a decision.

“We will not let things get worse ……. With that in mind, I want to improve it.” 

Cyclo answered immediately.

“…… I don’t want to give in to this nonsense.”

Karim smiles at Cyclo’s decision.

“You’re right. I knew you would say that. –Then we’ll have to think of a way to deal with it.”

“–Um, I’ve got one idea, may I?”

Then Mist raised his hand.

Everyone nodded, urging Mist to continue the conversation.

“Master–he can’t trust strangers. You said so, and you bought me bound by a slavery contract, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. That was my intention at first.”

In response to Mist’s question, Cyclo returns the affirmative.

“If so, I think that for Master, the slave contract has an effect that will ease his anxiety. So …… I thought that if Master puts a slave contract to Ms. Alice, perhaps it could alleviate some of his symptoms ……”

As she went on to the latter part of the sentence, Mist seemed to have difficulty saying it, but still somehow managed to finish it.

Since the proposal was to make his sister a slave, it was understandably difficult for her to say so.

But, because Mist was serious about her proposal for the sake of Cyclo, no one rejected it out of hand.

However, as one might expect, Cyclo had his own resistance.

“No …… I don’t think the idea is a bad one. But Mist. As expected …… to make my own sister a slave is…”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. Thanks for coming up with the idea, Mist.”

Cyclo pats Mist’s head and Mist smiles happily at this.

Seeing the two of them, Alice looks jealous and puffed.

Then, right after – she seems to have thought of what a good idea, and smiles wickedly.

“–I think it’s a great idea to be a slave, big brother! And I have just the right story for it!”

“Just the right story?”

Alice’s sudden suggestion. The three of them, including Cyclo, listen to her story with some doubt.

“The truth is. It happened before I left the Royal Capital….”

And then – what Alice began to talk about was shocking and outlandish.

First of all, Alice told them that she had actually sent some of the money she earned as an adventurer to Cyclo and her mother, Salina.

But this in itself was not a problem.

Secondly, the guild master in the Royal Capital had taken Cyclo’s reputation to heart and stopped the remittance, saving the money on his own.

This, too, is not a story that people here should denounce at this point.

But the next problem is this.

Alice, to her surprise, lost her temper with the guild master, in short, her adoptive father, and in a fit of emotion, blew up the Adventurers’ Guild.

She had seriously injured her adoptive father, and had also half-destroyed the guild, and had come all the way to Northfolia.

“–So, I was thinking that if my brother could arrest me as a criminal slave and take me into custody, everything would be all right…”

Before Alice could finish, she noticed the intimidation and held her tongue.

Cyclo, of all people, was clearly intent on lecturing her.

“Hey, Alice.”

“Yes.”

“You! Big idiot!”

Cyclo shouted at Alice with a screaming voice.

“That’s clearly a criminal act! Why are you acting so nonchalant like, “Did I do something?”!!”

“B-Because …… I saved up all that money for big brother, and he wasted it all…”

“But blowing him up was too much! At least punch him in the face with your fist!”

“No, no, no, that’s still enough to constitute assault, right?”

The flow of the conversation was interrupted by Karim’s cool-headed comment, so Cyclo took a breath before continuing.

“…… Well, what’s done is done. Alice, you didn’t kill him, did you?”

“Yes. He is a former high-ranking adventurer, after all. He’s not the kind of guy who would die from something like that. And if he dies, I can’t blow him up again.”

“……, does that mean you were going to blow him up again and half-kill him when he gets well?”

“Of course!”

When Alice gives the peace sign, Cyclo lets out a deep sigh in astonishment.

“I understand. I can’t let you out into the world. If I don’t take you into my custody as a criminal slave, I don’t know where you’ll go and what you’ll do. “

Mist and Karim, perhaps convinced by what Cyclo said, nodded with a wry smile.

“Then Master will take custody of Ms. Alice as a criminal slave and apply a slave contract, is that right?”

“Yeah …… Whatever the case, I can’t give Alice to someone else, after all.”

Karim nodded in agreement.

“That’s right. Then… all this has something to do with Mr. Frontier Count, doesn’t it, Cyclo? You don’t care if we throw it all to him, right??”

“I agree. Let’s use what we can.”

And so it went.

Thus, Cyclo decided to take in his own sister, Alice, as a slave.